Originally Posted by Amaluna:
“I was just putting together Aliona's timeline on Strictly and other projects she had during her time on Strictly, so please add more details where I lack.
Strictly Come Dancing
So she starts in 2009, with Natalie Lowe and someone else [Katya Virshilas], is partnered with Matt Cutler professionally. [Aliona choreographs several pro dances in her first year on Strictly.]
Her partner is Rav Wilding and they got eliminated third?
Matt Cutler got partnered with Martina Hingis and they were eliminated first. He left after this Strictly.
[Series 8 - and a lot of changes introduced by producer Moira Ross. Aliona is paired with Jared Murillo.]
In 2010 Aliona gets Matt Baker (who is also a former gymnast) and they reach final but lose because according to the rules the Judges decide who wins, not the public [I'm not sure, but I think the public vote was decisive]. However they win the Tour, right? (Where the public votes I assume?)[There was a Tour where Craig decided that the judge's vote would prevail over the public vote, but that regime only lasted a few weeks]
After almost winning with Matt Baker she got Harry Judd in 2011 - who had wrong posture [Previously, Harry had only danced a Paso for CIN with Ola, 1 week's training for which meant he was punished by losing a week's training with Aliona. He had bad posture in his first Ballroom dance, but you could see at the end he knew he had not danced as well as he hoped] and wrong [pigeon toed] feet but worked hard and improved tremendously and finally won. In this year she meets Anita Dobson who is also in the competition with Robin Windsor and she introduces her to her now husband Vin.
So in 2012 there is no chance the bosses pair her with another contender, so she gets Johnny Ball who is likely not to stay for long [Aliona was impressed by Johnny, and had hopes he would surprise people] but unfortunately she undergoes an injury and can't dance this year [Aliona did return to dancing before the end of the show - ahead of the timescale advised, and having to cope with pain as a result] so Johnny is paired up with Iveta. Johnny is the first to be eliminated.
The trauma gets some plausible response by former colleagues with James Jordan I think (suits his personality) accusing her of faking the injury because she didn't get a contender this year. [Don't know who said what, but Aliona tweeted that she could sue those accusing her of faking her injury. James tweeted something similar to 'Does that include people on Strictly?' and from memory, I think Aliona's response was 'Obviously', but that is just how I remember it - can't be sure, and the tweets have all gone now. Aliona did publish details of the consultant's diagnosis.]
In 2013 new producer takes over - Louise Rainbow, and Jason Gilkison is appointed director of choreography. An overall change to the format.
In 2013 she is surprisingly not signed up for the show, however, after Natalie is injured in the beginning of the show, Aliona is asked to replace her and is partnered with Tony Jacklin, but they get eliminated first. She remain friend with Jacklin.
Early in 2014, Aliona marries. Sir Bruce Forsyth leaves presenting the show full time and the format is somewhat change to a more modern-type of show - staged VTs are introduced, story lines and scripted judges comments.
This same year Aliona is signed up and she gets Gregg Wallace infamous for his unrespectful behaviour and they get eliminated first, no doubt mainly due to his "pleasant" personality.
In 2015, when everyone believed in the beginning that Peter Andre is the real contender because of his training and stage experience, she gets Jay, who is a promising dancer but lacks consistency and has a huge anxiety management problem.
The rest is history. (Glorious history.)
Aliona wins due to public vote (judges place her and Jay bottom of leader board) and quits. (who would have blamed her).
In 2016 she appears with Jay on several occasions as the Sport Relief and Pointless Celebrities, the Winner Dance at the opening of Strictly 2016 and they guest appeared on Robin Windsor's show Keep Dancing.
In various polls Aliona gets the most popular Strictly professional award, wins three tours - with Matt Baker, Harry Judd and Jay McGuiness and a Christmas Special in 2014 with Louis Smith.
Outside main Strictly.
Beginning of 2016 she did The Strictly Arena Tour. End of 2016 she guest dances in Keep Dancing.
In 2013 and 2014 [2014 only] she dances in Brendan Cole's show Licence to Thrill. She didn't dance in Brendan's 2015 show but he uses a picture of her on his advertisement without permission and later taken down [Brendan settled out of court, but I think he was able to use all the promo items with the picture on them.].
In beginning of 2013 she appears with Matt Cutler in Britain's Brightest show with a paso dance.
Same year she appears in Strictly Special Edition for Children in Need with Jane Torvyl and Christopher Dean.
In 2013 she does Christmas Special with Matt Goss.
In 2012 she wins the Strictly LIve Arena Tur with Harry Judd. And both performed an underwater dance for Sport Relief.
Same year she takes part in Christmas Special with Patrice Muamba.
In 2011 she wins the Strictly Arena Tour with Matt Baker.
In 2008-2009 she toured with Dancing with The Stars and partnered Maks Chmerkovskiy, Derek Hough and Dmitry Chaplin.”
Katt would be the expert on Aliona's timeline.
I'd suggest just referencing Katt's excellent website?
http://aliona-vilani.org/aliona/
We only get some information, so we often cannot be sure exactly what happened and when. The information that could confirm or clarify things can be lost over time.
Could be better maybe, to limit it to what are incontrovertible facts?
Aliona partnered Michael Pattie in The People's Strictly in 2015.
And as you say it is major embellishment.